Picking up pasts
by tillyellen
Summary: Catherine is dead, but is she truly gone? Set after the last book, please review, good and bad accepted
1. Prolougue

The black haired girl shot the short boy a glare and he flew backwards as if hurled by an unseen force. His back cracked against the metal wall so hard the massive vessel seemed to rock. The girl turned her green gaze on another figure, who was watching with barely concealed anger. "Come on Mia, don't be shy," mocked the girl in an American accent "I need my pamper pack, my goodie bag, come on, I won't hurt you."  
The figure moved forward, her short, dark brown hair whirling around her head in the strong wind and her violet eyes narrowed. "Ok," she said loudly "I'll give you everything you need."  
The first girl smiled, "oh, good, i find it so much nicer not to fight," she gripped the other girls arm and her pretty smile widened "ooh, warm, that's nice," she breathed. The brown haired girl braced herself and squeezed her eyes shut.


	2. Chapter 1

Dax shot up in his bed, a cold sweat coated his face. "It's not true. She's dead, she's gone, it's over," he told himself. "Catherine is dead!" He shouted at the wall. Gideon wasn't in his bed, Dax checked the clock, 8:30! "Thanks a lot mate," he muttered under his breath. He hastily raked a hand through his short, reddish brown hair and changed out of his pyjamas. He stopped as he was about to go downstairs and looked out the window. Dax walked over to it and pulled it open, glorying in the sharp morning breeze. He jumped onto the windowsill and was no longer a boy, but a magnificent perigrine falcon. He pushed off from the window ledge and glided to the ground, where he immediately turned to a fox, rust red and magnificent. Dax was a shapeshifter, although so far he could only switch between boy, fox, otter and falcon. He was part of an exclusive group of 11 talented children protected by the government. They were the children of limitless ability, the kids there called it the COLA club. Dax padded through the wood. Having decided it would be quicker to eat outside he scanned the air for the scent of rabbits. When he detected some he crept, silently, towards them. He leaped and felt once again the warm flesh beneath his claws and he heard the rabbits heaving chest take its last breath. Dax did not enjoy this taking of life but he did accept it and found guilty pleasure in the adrenaline before the kill. He doubted he could ever kill anything as a boy but hunting was natural as a fox. After feasting Dax looked longingly at the glittering lake, bright in the crisp November sun, an almost shifted to otter. He, however, restrained himself, accepting it was time to head back. He inclined his coppery head towards his dorm window and, realising it was shut, sighed and headed for the door, shifting to a boy as he went. He knocked loudly on the dark oak panelling and the door was opened by Mrs Satre, an elegant Frenchwoman who was also the principle of Fenton lodge - the collage in which the COLAs lived.

When Dax slipped into his seat next to Gideon, Mr Tucker was already in the room, however, he ignored Dax's late entry and continued with the register. "Gid, you closed the window again!" Hissed Dax  
"Mate, it's November!" Gideon protested loudly, Mr Tucker shot him a look. "Hey, if I had left the window open any longer I'd have turned into a snowman!" He continued more quietly. On the other side of the classroom Lisa sat up straight and rubbed her shoulder as she usually did when spirits were trying to contact her. Lisa was a medium, a clairvoyant, a phsycic and a dowser, and she hated it. She hated the constant clamouring of spirits trying to use her head as a post service to the living, hated the endless death scenes she was forced to watch, hated the way she had been wrenched from her well off world of servants, ponies, mansions and money. But she had accepted it, and now reluctantly churned out an everlasting amount of pink Spirit Communication Notice slips whenever a spirit needed dealing with. "Do you need an SCN slip miss Hardman?" Enquired Mr Tucker.  
"No, it's just Slyv" replied Lisa. She sounded annoyed, as she often did when she couldn't interpret what the dead were trying to tell her, another thing she hated was how everything spirits told her was either vague or frustratingly unclear, especially when it involved people close to her. This was the curse of the LOB - the Loved Ones Buffer - and could be incredibly infuriating. It often made Lisa snappy and sharp tongued. Sitting next to Lisa was Mia, a tall girl, with dark, shoulder-length hair and wide violet eyes. She was pretty but not beautiful, although she seemed it when you first met her. Mia was a healer and she had what her friends called the Mia effect - her healing power made you feel so good when you were near her that you immediately fell for her. It caused the girl great embarrassment, although luckily the obsession with her wore of the longer you stayed near her so all her friends were pretty much used to it. In front of Mia was Spook. Spook was an illusionist - he could make you see things that weren't there - and everyone knew he was desperate to become a famous magician, in fact, he had taken to wearing a magicians cloak in his own time. It was common knowledge Spook had written to several television companies about a TV series featuring a talented young magician, however Dax doubted the letters had even got out of the collage, and Spook had never got a reply. Spook hated Dax because Dax was resistant. Dax could not be tricked by illusions, a couple of years before, Spook and some of his friends (who had lost their powers not long afterwards) had put on a show on fireworks night. While all his friends had seen and heard an amazing fireworks display, Dax had seen the occasional faint burst of light and then just a lot of shimmering, as if there had been a heat-haze. Next to Spook was Darren, Spooks friend and fellow illusionist. Darren was a quiet boy, and, although he quite liked Dax and his friends, he was painfully in awe of Spooks superior talent. Across from Dax and Gideon sat Luke and Jennifer. Luke was Gideon's twin and had the same tufty blonde hair, green eyes and freckled face. The only obvious difference was Luke's glasses, until Gideon started talking, because Luke was mute. The twins were both very powerful telekinetics. Luke had once held back a tidal wave. With the power of his mind. Luke and Gideon had been triplets, but they no-longer talked about their sister much, about Catherine. Jennifer was a glamourist, she could vanish, turn completely invisible whenever she felt like it. She was a willowy blonde and had an unsettling habit of appearing at your shoulder and commenting on your book. Barry was also a glamourist, although you could usually tell where he was as he was about as well coordinated as a hippopotamus in high heels, and he had a problem with his adenoids that caused him to whistle as he breathed out. Next to Barry was Clive. Clive was not a COLA but he had been involved in various COLA adventures and was a science and engineering genius so the government preferred to have him on the inside, he was a sort of honorary COLA. He liked to spend a lot of time in the lab and had an awful fashion sense. He often talked like an old professor but Dax liked him anyway. In front of Spook and Darren was Alex and Jacob Teller, the telepathic brothers. On top of this they were amazing mimics and could adjust their voices to match anything in the world. It was hilarious.  
At the end of the lesson Dax cornered Gideon. "Treehouse, now." He said, "tell Lisa, Mia and Luke."  
***


	3. Chapter 2

"I need to talk about Catherine" said Dax. Lisa, Mia, Luke and Gideon looked at him aghast. "I have this feeling she's not done with us, I know she's dead but-" he trailed off and sighed, "no. Forget it. Let's just leave, she's dead, gone, she cant do anything anymore." Dax made to leave but felt a soft hand on his back. He turned around and saw Mia's violet eyes, they held so much wisdom, he trusted them so much. "No Dax," she said gently "I think we should, tell us what's wrong." Dax sighed again, "I've just- I've just been having nightmares. About her. I just wondered, that's all." Luke moved his hands rapidly. "He says 'me too'" Gideon translated "but then, I think we all have."  
"It's only to be expected Dax, after what she did," Lisa's voice was surprisingly sympathetic.  
"Yeah but-" Dax started, "no. Your right let's go"  
"No." Mia was more forceful this time, "we are all having nightmares, and your right Lisa, it is only to be expected, but we have to sort it out. She isn't finished with us Dax, and she won't be until we sort it out. The only place she is left alive is inside us, and we have to get her out. None of us are leaving here until we are at least a little bit closer to doing that." No one contradicted her and everyone sat in silence until one word broke the air. "How?" Asked Gideon simply and everyone jumped, "how do we get rid of her?"  
"Well," said Mia quietly, "I think we have to make it so she's, y'know, not so important to us anymore."  
"You mean we have to forget her." Said Gideon bluntly. Mia nodded and he put his face in his hands "no. I can't. Sorry Mia, I just can't do it." Mia said nothing and did not try to stop Gideon disappearing over the side of the treehouse. "If... If it's ok, I still think the rest of us should try." Mia seemed unusually self conscious. Her cheeks were red and she spoke hesitantly, it was obvious she was not sure of what she was saying. Lisa nodded slowly but Luke looked away. "You can go if you want to Luke," murmured Mia, "none of us mind." But Luke shook his head fiercely. It was Dax's turn to look away. "I don't know if I can." He said "I don't think I can forget her, I feel like I need to remember what she did, I don't know if I want to ever forget. I know it sounds weird but I think-" he gave up "I just need to remember." He concluded. Mia sighed, "ok Dax, I think it's better if we have a little more time before we start trying to do anything about... It." Dax nodded and followed Gideon over the edge of the treehouse.  
Through the entire remainder of the day thoughts of the mistletoe sister constantly clamoured for his attention. He thought of how uneasy he had been when Gideon had found he was not just a twin, but a triplet. How he had passed it off as jealousy, because that's what it had been for Luke. How, even when he had found out that Catherine was a parasite, sapping energy out of other beings (and powers in the case of the COLAs) like mistletoe, he had given her a second chance. That had been the biggest mistake of his life. He often blamed himself for the destruction of Treggarren, even though it had been Catherine who had bought in the tidal wave that had ended the COLA collage where he had first found happiness. Lisa had wanted to stop Catherine straight away but it had been Dax who had persuaded her to give Catherine a second chance. Everyone said he couldn't have known, but one thing he did know was that, even if everyone else did, he would never forgive himself for his mistakes.

For some reason Dax was playing fetch with all his friends. He was in fox form, fetching the ball and having a great time. As a laughing Mia was about to throw the ball her hand abruptly dropped to her side. Her knees gave way beneath her and she keeled forwards, her laugh frozen on her face, now squashed into the ground. All around him Dax could see everyone else doing the same and he thought of another scene, years back. Over a hundred COLAs doing the same thing, collapsing everywhere, having had all their energy drained by the malicious triplet, by Catherine. He was back in the present and there she was, her face a mask of fake concern. "Oh no Dax, I wonder what happened?" She mocked. Her face changed suddenly to a pool of pure hatred, "I'm coming for you Dax, this isn't over. I'm not giving up."  
"You can't, your dead, you can't hurt me! You can't hurt any of us!" Dax was sobbing now, although inside all he felt was anger. He heard that scornful laugh that he never thought he would hear ever again. Full of laughter, full of fun and liveliness. To anyone else it would have been a wonderful sound, but to Dax it was a death bell. "You can't hurt me, your dead" she mimicked, " oh yeah? Well I'm not gonna let that stand in my way! See you later Dax" Catherine laughed again, this time a laugh of triumph. She skipped over to Gideon and Luke, lying next to each other, And put each of her hands around each of their throats and squeezed.  
"No!" screamed Dax, hysterical, "please, NOO-"


	4. Chapter 3

Gideon was shaking him. "Dax! Dax! Wake up! What's wrong?" But Dax still didn't know where he was, his nightmare still felt horribly real. "NO!" He screamed, "get off them! NO!"  
"Dax! Wake up!" Gideon was more urgent this time but still Dax was stuck in his nightmare. Dax lashed out blindly and shouted again. Gideon slapped him. Dax shot up in bed but his eyes were fuzzy and out of focus. "Get away from me!" He snarled "your dead, you can't do anything to me!" And then Gideon chucked his glass of water in Dax's face. Finally Dax's eyes focused, he hugged his knees, pale and shaking. "Mate, what the hell was going on there?" Asked Gideon  
"Going on there?" Said Dax weakly, "oh, it was only a nightmare."  
Gideon was silent for a moment "ok," he said at length " well, I'm going to breakfast, join me if your hungry."  
"Maybe" murmured Dax, although he had no appetite whatsoever. Gideon paused and opened his mouth, then closed it again, "y'know we'll all be here for you, no matter what." He smiled awkwardly, "unconditionally." He finished, and walked out of the room.

For what felt like hours Dax just sat and stared listlessly out of the window. He knew it was long since lesson time but he didn't care. "She's dead, she's dead, she's gone! she's dead," he repeated over and over. As if something like that could stop her. He remembered something Gideon had said back at Treggarren, Catherine had just cut and healed herself, just for fun, something even Mia couldn't do. "Maybe if she got blown up she could just pull all the bits together and get alive again!" That's what Gideon had said, Dax had laughed then, he wasn't laughing now.  
After a couple more minutes Dax sighed and got up. He looked at his watch and realised it would just be the beginning of second period. Geography. He walked through his bedroom door and down the big grand staircase then along a corridor to get to the geography classroom. He could hear Gideon explaining his absence to Mrs Dann. "He had a bit of trouble sleeping, he'll probably be down soon"  
"It's ok," said Dax as he entered the classroom, "I'm here now."  
Lisa nudged his shoulder and sent him a swift telepathic message. Because of Dax's animal genetics he could receive this kind of thing, however he often had to make some form of contact with Lisa before they could make contact with their minds. What's up? Said Lisa, telepathically. Nothing! Insisted Dax. He did not want Lisa to know how much his most recent nightmare had shaken him. He could feel Lisa using her abilities to prod around in his head and saw again all his friends collapse around him and Catherine's sneering smile emerging from the shadows. He quickly pushed the image from his head but Lisa had caught it. Her eyes widened and she put her hand to her mouth in horror Dax, you don't think...? She sent, but he shook his head firmly and concentrated hard on what mrs Dann was saying.  
For an hour, Dax managed to absorb himself enough to all but exterminate any dark thoughts and memories of his dream. He concentrated hard on the ins and outs of the French coastline. Brittany, Calais... Dax stopped. Troisenfants. The town where Catherine had stayed for several months, charging herself up with Luke, the place where she had pinned Dax, as a falcon, with a nail and a shard of glass through each of his wings, to a windmill sail and made it spin and spin and spin, it made him feel sick just thinking about it. As if that wasn't enough, it was also the place where Catherine had been transferred into the not-so-safe hands of the French government. That had almost ended in all the COLAs being auctioned off to various countries and most probably death to all of them. Dax felt himself starting to shake. He tried to stop the shudders rattling through his body but Mia was staring at him. One by one all the COLAs turned to look at him but he could not control himself. I'm coming for you Dax, this isn't over, I'm not giving up! Shouted Catherine in his head. Dax's breathing became rapid. A little part of him was dimly aware of Gideon shaking his shoulders roughly but when he finally lost consciousness it was welcome.  
Dax's eyes flickered open to see Gideon's pale face over his. He felt soaked in sweat and his throat was incredibly sore. He knew he couldn't have just fainted. "Gid," he said warily, his voice croaky, "did I do anything... Weird?"  
Gideon looked astonished, "you mean you don't remember! Mate, you must have been screaming for five minutes straight!"  
"Dax, you do know what we have to do, don't you?" Whispered Mia.  
They all looked at him. Dax remembered what had happened in the treehouse a couple of days ago. He didn't want to forget her. Forgetting is forgiving, and he could not ever forgive Catherine.  
"Come on Dax, I'll do it with you, it'll be good for both of us, Luke too." Said Gideon quietly. All his friends looked extremely shaken and even spook, trying to smirk, couldn't hide his shock. He knew he would have been shaken too if Gideon had lain on the floor screaming for five minutes but all the same it was odd because he didn't remember doing anything that would shake them.  
"Oh dear mongrel," sneered spook, even though he had a waver in his voice, "remembered you left your business on the doorstep?"  
Gideon glared at him but didn't take it any further. Mrs Dann came into the room with Janey. She too looked pale but immediately began to efficiently herd the confused COLAs back to their desk. Janey leaned in close to Dax's face, her long dark hair brushing his cheek. Janey was not only the collage nurse but also one of the scientists that studied the COLAs. Dax knew she felt incredibly guilty about it and would try her hardest to protect him but he could never quite forgive Janey for the part she had played in inserting the tracker chips that had almost cost the COLAs their lives into their skulls. She had had no idea that they had been anything more than trackers, but still.  
"He should go and rest for a bit but I think he'll be fine" said Janey with comforting smile directed at Dax.  
As Dax got changed and went to bed he felt like he was asleep already.


	5. Chapter 4

"Dax, who do you care for and trust most in the entire world?"  
Mia had spent a long time working out what to do but Dax just felt like everything she did was just an attempt to distract him from his own thoughts. He looked away and sighed.  
"I dunno, Gideon?"  
"Why?"  
"'Cause he's my best mate."  
Mia looked exasperated "come on Dax, you have to think!"  
"Because of everything we've done together. Look Mia, I appreciate the effort but I just want to be on my own a bit."  
"Dax, we have to do something!" Insisted Mia.  
"Why!" Dax was shouting now "why do I have to forget her. If I forget her I've as good as forgiven her and I can never, _never_ forgive Catherine!"  
Mia looked extremely upset "Dax, I can't let you go on like this, it's horrid, horrid to see you like this! It's not just you feeling horrid, your bringing the rest of us down too!"  
"Oh, I'm sorry, why don't you just whack me round the head to make me forget her! It'll save you the trouble!"  
Mia let out a small, hitching sob and wiped her eyes roughly. "I won't help you then! I'll just let you rot away inside while you have your nightmares and your screaming fits and scare all of us silly. If you won't face up to your fears then your a coward, Dax jones, a pitiful snivelling coward. But don't expect me to feel sorry for you!"  
It was unsettling to see Mia so angry. Dax felt his blood run cold as she turned to glare at him and he saw that her eyes were as black as the obsidian stone on her bracelet. "You wouldn't," he murmured in the second before a massive fireball launched itself at him. He dived out of the way but felt a tear of agony in his right hand as the flame engulfed it. Dax felt himself become lightheaded and his legs gave way beneath him. He knew he was going to fall off the side of the treehouse but there was nothing he could do about it. He prepared for the pain that was going to come, it would be more so than anything he was feeling in his hand. He squeezed his eyes shut but the impact did not come. When he opened them again he saw Spook's face come slowly into focus above his own. The boy looked at him, speechless, for a second then put him down abruptly and looked up at Mia. Then Dax knew no more.

Dax woke up alone, with no idea why he was in the sanatorium. A shockwave of pain shuddered up his arm and his memories crashed into his head. He felt dreadful, he had provoked Mia to try to kill him, she hadn't even redirected the flame. He had known for years she was capable of it but to have her actually do it. It was horrible. Suddenly, Mia herself came into the room with Lisa, sobbing. He pretended to be asleep, he just couldn't face her. She knelt at his side and whispered into his ear, "Dax, I'm so sorry, I promise you I didn't really want you to die, I promise! Dax, please forgive me, I know I will never forgive myself."  
"I know your awake Dax" said Lisa. Dax sighed and opened his eyes, "hey Mia, Lisa," he said weakly. He didn't want to see them, he just wanted to talk to Gideon. He looked away from them again and saw his hand. It was covered by a thick, white, mitten-like bandage and if felt a little bit sticky. He hoped it was just a dressing on the burn. Of course, Lisa picked his thoughts out of his head and whispered them to Mia. "I'll go get Gideon then," said Lisa awkwardly. Dax looked up at her gratefully as she and Mia backed out of the room. Seconds later Gideon appeared in the doorway and Dax relaxed.  
"I heard what happened" Gideon winced, "Mia's really cut up about it."  
Yeah, well, it's not all that bad, I've got the morning off lessons at least." Said Dax, grinning. Gideon grinned back, "yeah, double maths, that's jammy!" He resumed seriousness and said, "hey, your obviously not doing great and, well, I've been thinking. Have you thought about going to Spain, y'know, to Owen and Ty's place!"  
Dax looked at him, excitement building up inside him. A thought struck him and his mood fell, "How will we get there?" He asked glumly. "There's no way chambers is going to let us just fly out to Spain."  
"Well," Gideon said carefully, "we could go AWOL again."  
Dax took a deep breath, "I know how I'd get out, but what about you?" ,  
Gideon looked shocked, he obviously hadn't expected to convince Dax so quickly. He sat down on the end of the bed opposite Dax and cupped his head in his hands looking thoughtful. He frowned hard and then relaxed. Dax looked at him expectantly. "No idea." Said Gideon bluntly, sighing.  
"Ah well," Dax tried to hide his disappointment, "it was a good idea while it lasted."

Lisa frowned, over the last few days less and less spirits had been coming to her, and now she couldn't contact Slyv either. It all felt horribly familiar.


End file.
